Cross My Heart
by Mirrored Illusions
Summary: Buffy began collecting crosses when her first Watcher gave her one that his family had given to their current Slayer for the past 200 years.


**Merrick Jamison-Smythe / 1996**  
The first thing he did after giving her the Slayer Spiel was to give her a silver cross and to tell her that it was of utmost importance that she wear it, or another one, at all times. He had been so serious when he had said it; but being a 15 year old cheerleader she had just laughed incredulously at him.

He had informed her it had been blessed by a number of important holy people over the last 200 years, and that it would keep her neck safe from vampires as long as she wore it. She hadn't believed him.

To her amusement he had been properly scandalized when she told him she had never owned a cross necklace in her life. She had tried not to laugh at his reaction, she really tried, but it had been too funny.

The cross itself was clearly old and well-worn. It looked like it had been made to appear like a smaller and thinner cross had been laid upon a bigger and wider one. The whole thing was about the size of her thumb and had what she recognized as a Latin inscription etched into the back.

It had looked foreign in her small hand.

**Oliver Pike / 1996**

Pike had shown up at the Hemery High school dance and given her a small, very simple gold cross and told her to wear it. He had insisted that she needed to wear one, even if she couldn't bear to use the one Merrick had given her.

She'd been annoyed when he gave it to her, but later that night when Lothos and his minions had attacked she'd been grateful. The tiny piece of jewelry had bought her enough time to kill several vamps that had managed to get a little too close to her.

**Rupert Giles / 1996**

Less than a year after she met Merrick, her second Watcher handed her another silver cross; this time with what he told her were Scottish Gaelic words of protection carved into the back by hand. This one was nearly 300 years old, but had significantly less signs of having been worn. The filigree around the edges were pretty, but overall not her style.

When she asked he said it was tradition for a Watcher to give their Slayer an old cross which held special protection. After she pressed him he also admitted that another part of it was to take it back after the Slayer was killed. It annoyed her to no end that he insisted that it was not lent to her but a gift and therefore her personal property and not a loan.

When she got home that night she put it beside the cross her first Watcher gave her and forgot about it.

She never wore it.

**Angel / 1996**

Like Merrick and Giles he gave her a cross simply because she was the Slayer, not because he wanted to specifically give _Buffy_ a piece of jewelry. It stung a little when she thought about it years later.

Angel's cross was also silver, but unlike the ones she had been given before it was relatively big and plain with no decoration or text. It was, however, obviously new and shiny.

She wore it occasionally for the next few years, but stopped when Angel left her after the mess that was her high school graduation/the Mayors attempt to ascend.

The day after she took it off and put it into the same box as the ones she had gotten from her Watchers. The difference was that the one she got from Angel had a small ring on the chain; a ring with two hands touching a heart with a crown above.

**Willow Rosenberg / 1997**

Willow gave her a dark wooden cross with a smaller bronze cross over it and held in place by tiny bronze nails for her 16th birthday. It hung on a leather cord that matched the wood. It was pretty.

Her new best friend spent the next ten minutes telling her about how the sales woman knew her parents were Jews and kept asking her why she wanted a cross. Apparently telling the woman that it was a present and having it gift-wrapped wasn't convincing enough to make her believe that she wasn't secretly a Christian.

**Cordelia Chase / 1997**

Even after Sunnydale collapsed into a crater she still didn't know why Cordelia, of all people, had given her a necklace. It was so out of character for Sunnydale High's Queen C.

However the cross was small and went well with many of her clothes so she wore it often throughout her junior year. According to her sort-of friend it was hand-made, and consisted of 5 emerald green stones set in a familiar shape.

**Jenny Calendar (Janna Kalderash) / 1998**

Miss Calendar gave her a Gypsy cross pendant made of bronze the day after Angel lost his soul. Her teacher told her it had been made for the Gypsy princess Angelus had killed a hundred years ago.

It had a pentagram meticulously drawn in the middle and symbols she didn't recognize going up and down the arms on both sides.

Her resolution to ask her teacher about it came to an abrupt end when her former lover killed the woman.

**Kendra Young / 1998**  
The Jamaican Slayer gave her a small and simple silver cross while they were walking back to the Summers home when she came to help with Acathla. It was a nice gesture, and one that she didn't expect from the Council-raised girl, but it was much appreciated.

She firmly told herself to buy a cross so she could return the favor, but two days and a sharp fingernail later and she was back to being the only Chosen One.

It didn't occur to her until several days later to wonder if Mr. Zabuto had ever given Kendra any crosses. After all, she had never seen the girl wear one.


End file.
